However, since complete abolition could never be achieved, reformers concentrated on limiting.

             the scope of capital punishment. In 1794, Pennsylvania adopted a law to distinguish the degrees.

             of murder and only used the death penalty for premeditated first-degree murder. Another reform.

             took place in 1846 in Louisiana. This state abolished the mandatory death penalty and authorized.

             the option of sentencing a capital offender to life imprisonment rather than to death. After the.

             1830s, public executions ceased to be demonstrated but did not completely stop until after 1936. .

             Thirty-seven states now have laws authorizing the death penalty, as does the military. A.

             dozen states in the Middle West and Northeast have abolished capital punishment, two in the last.

             century (Michigan in 1847,Minnesota in 1853). Alaska and Hawaii have never had the death.

             penalty. Most executions have taken place in the states of the Deep South. More than 2,000.

             people are on death row today. Most of all of the people are poor, a significant number are.

             mentally retarded or mentally disabled, more than 40 percent are African American, and a.

             disproportionate number are Native American, Latino and Asian.

             The methods of execution have changed over the ages. The death penalty been inflicted.

             in many ways now regarded today as barbaric and forbidden by law almost everywhere. Some.

             ways it was inflicted in the past was crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering,.

             impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and drowning. These types of.

             punishment today are considered cruel and unusual punishment. In the United States, the death.

             penalty is currently authorized in one of five ways: hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber,.

             firing squad, or lethal injection. These methods of execution compared to those of the past are.

             not meant for torture, they are meant for punishment for heinous crime. .

             The traditional mode of execution, still available in a few states, is hanging.